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Topic: Rating the Star Wars Saga (Read 867 times)

I know we have a thread on here ranking the movies in order from favorite to least favorite, but I didn't see one for actually rating each movie individually. I was wondering - on a scale of 1 to 10 - how you would rate each of the Star Wars movies? Off the top of my head, I think I'd rate them like this:

Star Wars (A New Hope) - 10/10 (I often look at this as "what if it was a stand alone movie", just a fun movie to watch from start to finish)

The Empire Strikes Back - 10/10 (To me...and many...the best movie of the Saga. No weak spots here to me, and a lot of really memorable characters and scenes. The Battle of Hoth is still my favorite of the entire Saga. The asteroid chase, Yoda/Lando/Boba, so much great)

Return of the Jedi - 9/10 (Probably higher than most, but it holds a special place for me as it is the first movie I saw in the theater, with my Dad, and was my favorite for a long time as a kid because of that)

The Phantom Menace - 6/10 (Problems are well documented, but I'll still watch at least part of it when it is on. Still love the lightsaber battle, and the stuff with Obi-Wan and Qui Gon is all good too I think)

Attack of the Clones - 7/10 (This one has faded for me a bit since release. When I first saw it, I absolute loved it. Since then, there are parts of it - mainly the Anakin/Padme stuff in the middle - that I almost have to fast forward through. I can't say I do that with any other part of the Saga really. I do think the last half hour plus from when Anakin/Padme enter the arena to the end is good stuff. I also like Obi-Wan's entire arc of this movie, the sort of "solving the mystery" stuff and the face offs with Jango.

Revenge of the Sith - 8.5/10 (Definitely my favorite of the prequels, and almost on par with the OT for me. No many weak spots to speak of, aside from maybe Anakin's relatively "quick change" to the dark side. Pretty strong movie otherwise for me. I really only lower it another half point because I don't like it quite as much as ROTJ, which I gave a 9...but no real faults with this movie for me.

I doubt my view would differ much from yours at all Brian... The OT gets all the love, and ROTJ lacks something the other two had... And among the PT it's ROTS clear ahead of the other two, and then AOTC and last TPM...

That's probably the most common way fans rank things too, though I think some have a more clear-cut love of either ANH or ESB... Among older fans though, that's probably the norm though.

I'm like you with ANH and ESB though, and cannot really pick between the two. I'd probably lean more to ANH if I were in a choose one situation. *shrugs* It's just more a complete single movie by itself to me.

Star Wars (A New Hope) - 9/10 (I know, it's the one that started it all, how can it not get all the points? Chalk it up to my love for the whole Death Star Escape sequence, and my feeling that the Yavin section at the end is kind of anticlimactic after all that. It's not an opinion I've heard from anyone else, but I've stopped watching after the Falcon/TIE duel many a time. Otherwise, obviously, just a great great movie.)

The Empire Strikes Back - 10/10 (The high water mark. The thing is so funky as a movie, it is striking (no pun intended) how refreshing a movie that doesn't follow formula can be. Can't turn it off once it's on, and always makes me want to put on...)

Return of the Jedi - 7/10 (when I was a kid this was my favorite, I loved everything about it, from Jabba to the Sarlaac battle (which I comitted to memory nearly shot-for-shot before VHS) to the Speeder Bikes and even the Ewoks. Nowadays, I wish it was a better movie and didn't rely so much o nthe characterization made in ESB, but did it's own stuff (Prime example, the ham-handed rehash of the "I love you" "I know" bit. It just doesn't work the second time, except to make you remember how good a scene it was the first time.) I still like the Ewoks though, if I skip something it is usually the Jabba's Palace beginning.)

The Phantom Menace - 8/10 (I am in the minority that thinks this was the best prequel. Even more so than ANH, this is a standalone movie to me. Qui-Gon Jinn may be the best-written character of the entire saga IMO. Watto is by far the best supporting character of the PT, and really is the villain of the flick, far overshadowing Darth Maul. Of course, then you also have Jar Jar and little Ani, but I can almost excuse that stuff because this boils down to a kids movie. I always get caught up in this one the whole way through, even through the Tatooine stuff in the middle.)

Attack of the Clones - 4/10 (I can't remember the last time I watched this movie, it had to have been pre-05, so more than five years. This thing just didn't work for me once the newness of its Star Warsiness wore off. Anakin comes off so much worse as a grown-up than he did as a kid, Obi-wan tries to save things but runs into plot obstacles that can't be acted around. The only interesting characters are the Lars family, and they get very short shrift. Nah, I'd pick TPM every time over this one.)

Revenge of the Sith - 5/10 (I appreciate the bridge back to the OT here, but there are just too many problems for me to really get excited about this. The quick-change of Anakin after all the soul-searching, the lumpiness of the plot, and the general feeling of mean-spiritedness and lack of joy really detract from my enjoyment. As a big R2 fan I used to really dig the opening sequence aboard Grievous's ship, but after 2 seasons of Clone Wars cartoons I've seen it done much better elsewhere by now. Now I'll watch it for the duel at the end, but that's about all.)[/quote]